A US Navy fighter jet crashed Wednesday off the coast of Key West, Florida, killing its two crew members.

The F/A-18 Super Hornet was on approach to land at the naval air station around 4:30 pm EDT, and crashed into the water about a mile east of the runway.

The pilot and weapons system officer ejected and were recovered, but US Naval Air Forces reported late Wednesday night that both had died.

Their names are being withheld pending notification of next of kin. The cause of the crash is also under investigation.

The aircraft crew is based out of Naval Air Station Oceana, in Virginia Beach, Virginia. The Super Hornet is a twin-engine fighter jet that is larger than the single-seat F/A-18 Hornet.

(Source: AP)

Private media outlets in Cameroon are defying a ban on political programs imposed by the country’s National Communication Council. The council had ordered the ban, insisting political debates may cause conflict ahead of senatorial elections on March 25.

National Communication Council president Peter Essoka says Cameroon needs to promote peace, democracy and human rights, and needs to avoid hate speech. He says journalists may incite the population with one-sided reporting.

“Propaganda is when you go into elaborately telling about one political party and what they have done and all kinds of shouting on what they are doing. That is propaganda. Now, there must be a limitation. Let them [journalists] as much as possible be able to keep to these principles,” said Essoka.

Public broadcaster CRTV and Cameroon Tribune have respected the NCC’s order. But the Cameroon journalists’ trade union president Denis Kwebo and other private media outlets described it as an attack on press freedom. Many radio and television stations have refused to respect the NCC instructions.

At Galaxy FM 93.5, a popular radio station in Cameroon’s capital city Yaounde, heated debates on the senatorial elections to take place on March 25 are going on in a French-language political program called “Au coeur de la Republique.”

Political analyst Jean Jacques Ola Bebe says the station has defied instructions from the NCC and is ready to face the consequences.

He says as an analyst, he can not accept that someone should restrain freedom of speech in a country that says it wants to be fully democratic. He says the pillar on which any true democracy should stand is freedom of expression and that Cameroonians need to listen to and question all candidates for the senatorial election on their political plans and ask the balance sheet of out going senators.

Cameroon has more than 500 newspapers and 100 radio and television stations. NCC secretary-general Jean Tobie Hond says the outlets who ignore the instructions will be punished.

He says they are calling on such media outlets to make sure there is some balance in what they are doing, so the campaign for senatorial elections remains democratic and goes on hitch free. He says if they continue to favor or give preference to some political parties, their media organs will be suspended.

Last year, Cameroon’s National Communication Council suspended 35 journalists and media outlets, accusing them of failing to respect professional norms and ethics. Some of those punished had criticized the government’s handling of the crisis in the English-speaking regions. Others criticized senior state functionaries over the use of public funds.

Source: VOA

The UK plans to expel 23 Russian diplomats after an alleged nerveagent attack on a Russian former double spy in southern England, the biggest single expulsion in over 30 years.

British Prime Minister Theresa May told the House of Commons in Parliament on Wednesday that Russia has expressed “disdain” for Britain’s wish for an explanation into the attempted murder of former double agent his daughter.

May announced a range of economic and diplomatic measures, including a decision to cancel all high-level bilateral contacts with Moscow. She also said no ministers or members of the royal family will attend the football World Cup in Russia.

The UK premier said that the Russian diplomats have a week to leave Britain.

“We will freeze Russian state assets wherever we have the evidence that they may be used to threaten the life or property of UK nationals or residents,” May said.

Former double agent Sergei Skripal, 66, and his 33-year-old daughter, Yulia, have been hospitalized since they were found unconscious on a bench outside a shopping center in the city of Salisbury on Sunday.

Both Skripal and his daughter remain unconscious in a critical but stable condition.

British police attributed the critical illness of the two to a nerve agent that British media claim only governments could have possessed.

British media and politicians previously speculated that Russia might be behind the incident. Moscow has strongly denied the allegations and expressed its readiness to help with the investigation.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has repeatedly denied any involvement in the poisoning of the double spy in Britain. Peskov said the fact that the attack took place in England proves Russia had no role in the incident.

“The Russian citizen you mention… worked for one of Britain’s special services, the incident took place on British territory, and it is in no way an issue for Russia, let alone for the Russian leadership,” Peskov told journalists on Monday.

May said the expulsion of the 23 diplomats, identified as undeclared intelligence officers, was the biggest single expulsion for over 30 years and would degrade Russian intelligence capabilities in Britain for years to come.

Russian foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Britain was “acting out political drama” rather than investigating the matter seriously.

“Russia could not have had any motives” for the attack, he said, “but those who would like to continue a Russophobic campaign in absolutely all areas of human activities” could have had such motives.

Source: Presstv

Nearly 100,000 people who fled Venezuela have claimed refugee status since the start of 2017, the UN said Tuesday, as it ramped up response plans for a displacement crisis likely to worsen.

The UN refugee agency said the number of Venezuelans who have sought asylum has shot up 2,000 percent since 2014, but the most dramatic increases have occurred over the last 14 months.

With the country’s economic and political crisis intensifying, UNHCR has drawn up a “regional response plan that covers eight (surrounding) countries”, spokesperson Aikatarina Kitidi said.

“In view of the situation in Venezuela, it is crucial that people are not deported or forcibly returned there,” she added.

Asked if the UN had received reports of deportations or forced returns, Kitidi did not answer directly, saying only the agency was calling for “solidarity” among nations in the region in responding to Venezuelans in need.

An influx of Venezuelans has reportedly stirred tensions in Brazil, notably in the city of Boa Vista which has received 40,000 people, raising its population by more than 10 percent.

Hundreds of Venezuelans there have been sleeping on the ground for months, while using restrooms in gas or bus stations.

UNHCR warned that an increasing number of Venezuelans, especially those living abroad without legal protection, are “vulnerable to exploitation, trafficking, violence, sexual abuse, discrimination and xenophobia”.

The UN agency does not have a precise figure for those who have fled the crisis in Venezuela.

Regarding only those who have filed refugee claims, UNHCR said the figure stood at 145,000 since 2014 — but 94 percent of those claims have been recorded since the start of 2017.

(Source: AFP)